ANTI-BULLYING – reasonable management action – s.789FC Fair Work Act 2009 – Commission satisfied application valid – no doubt alleged incidents over three years took place – whether some or all incidents constitute actual bullying to justify making of order – whether incidents were reasonable management action carried out in reasonable manner – no specific number of incidents required for the behaviour to represent ‘repeatedly’ behaving unreasonably, nor that the same specific behaviour be repeated [GC] – must be repeated unreasonable behaviour by the individual or individuals toward the applicant worker – ‘unreasonable’ is an objective assessment – test is whether management action is reasonable not whether it could have been more reasonable – applicant’s conviction that she has been bullied is genuinely held by her – applicant had limited understanding of what bullying is – her belief was based on what she felt – responses to emails about workload were courteous, co-operative and even friendly – emails not aggressive – Commission found applicant did not accept her manager’s authority and wanted to run her own race – no corroborating evidence of applicant being bullied at team meetings – manager may have been direct and forceful on occasions – action does not amount to bullying – despite failure to substantiate claims in investigation, employer still arranged mediation and counselling – Commission satisfied investigations sound, appropriate and reasonable – Commission of view applicant acted unreasonably – applicant argumentative and defiant as a witness, and only sought to answer questions which suited her case – manager’s evidence was truthful and believable – medical evidence does not support a causal link between how applicant felt and managers actions toward her – application dismissed. Cao
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